Major League Wrestling "Underground TV" Report for 4/21/03
Submitted by Calvin Martin on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 at 6:58 AM EST
Report by: Bill Piven
Email: y2jakbar@usa.com
http://www.wrestlinginc.com
The big news: Got shoot? Apparently MLW does. Its almost as if MLW predicted the WWE would deliver the worst Raw in recent history, airing only 4 matches in 2 freaking hours as they shot on them in two different segments. The first shoot comments was when Samu of the Samoans said they aren't "some jolly dancing bears with thongs shoved up their asses" and knocked the Rock's electrifying demeanor. The other was a very well put statement by MLW announcer Joey Styles about the MLW Champion Kojima being a fighting champion who didn't get his belt from the GM (cough Triple H), sleep with the boss' daughter (cough Triple H), or bury others - - - - - he wrestled for it! Well put shot at WWE that compared MLW in a positive light saying they are about wrestling, not the garbage we saw for 2 hours prior to Underground.
MLW continues to crank excellent promos out of guys like ECW used to with this week's inventive approach to the Kojima Japanese segment. In this promo, Kojima did a lengthy Japanese dialogue which MLW decoded in English in text at the bottom of the screen. It was a radical change from the standard way of getting the international workers over and I approve with a big thumbs up. MLW also provided us with some good angles like the continuation of Vampiro and Raven, an overconfident Steve Corino shooting his mouth off at the vet and legend Terry Funk and Sabu vs. La Parka. These stories have meaning to them, something lacking in the redudent world of WWE right now, unfortunately.
Title changes: None (however Steve Williams/BJ Friedman and C.W. Anderson/Simon Diamond both advanced to the finals of the Global Tag Team Crown tournament that will occur on May 9's MLW show).
Babyface/heel turns: None
Best match: CW Anderson & Simon Diamond vs. Los Maximos. Well paced match that served as a forum to showcase how much better Simon Diamond has become in recent months. CW was also right on with his work. The two make a good team that I think could use a few more double team maneuvers, but that's just about it. Maximos still rush through stuff and lose their balance, but a lot less in this match. Finish was very believable and fun with Jose Maximo eating the mat by way of a sick spinebuster. CW and Simon as a tag team are made to hold gold..
Worst match: Dr. Death Steve Williams and BJ Friedman vs. Yang and Mike Sanders. Sanders is below average. I think Williams and BJ are a decent to good team but Sanders really hurt this one. Yang has a lot of potential. Reminded me of a Korean Rob Van Dam without the charisma. The styles sort of clashed, but it was still more fun than the opener on Raw.
Smut factor (1 to 10): 4. Samu got censored for saying shit and there was a triple blade job during the main event with Funk/Dusty/Corino, if you consider blood "smut". Great freakin' old school match with a good amount of the gimmicks to make it entertaining while throwing in the old school psychology.
Absurdity of the Week: Yang & Sanders as the wild card entry in the tournament when MLW has Masada & Nosawa, Hot Commodity, and the Samoans.
Analysis/highlights: Show opens with Corino pulling up the War Memorial "earlier this afternoon." Corino is sporting a nice BMW. Corino explains how he is financially and professionaly superior to Funk in what I think is his best promo of the past 3 or more years. His mocking of Funk's retirements, selling t-shirts at shows, age, accomplishments, etc. was vintage Horsemen. Corino was evil here.
This fades to the MLW Underground TV opener package.
MLW play-by-play man extroadinare Styles Styles welcomes us to Fort Lauderdale for MLW action and reflects on last week's on goings in the MLW, including Raven's latest attempts to antagonize Vampiro, Bill Alfonso (Sabu's manager) being attacked by La Parka, etc.
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams' student, BJ Friedman is approached by the MLW camera crew as he pulls up to the Dr. Death Dojo. He basically is PO'd that they are out there trying to film their training and tells them to go come back another time. This promo seemed to target getting over the character of BJ. Decent.
MLW Global Tag-Team Crown tournament: Steve Williams & BJ Friedman over Yang & Sanders. I was disappointed with Sanders in this one. Williams and Yang were the strongest links in this match and it showed with some dazzling aerial work by Yang and some of Doc Death's patented power moves before Yang went down to the high end backdrop.
Styles informs us that Doc Death and BJ have advanced to the finals and coming up later would be the final match of the GTC brackets: Maximos (Spanish Announce Team) vs. C.W. Anderson & Simon Diamond.
When the MLW returns from their commercials, Styles puts over CM Punk's arrival. He puts over the Pepsi Plunge too.
Samoan Island Tribe (Samu & Mana) cut a promo about not getting credit for being the innovators (in their family?) as they shoot all over Rikshi and the Rock. Pretty interesting to see this from the Samoans.
Styles tells us that Bill Alfonso is still recovering from La Parka's attack.
Satoshi Kojima delivers a promo backstage in his native tongue of Japanese. It is transcribed in English in sub-text at the bottom of the screen. He essentially says he heard Mike Awesome is looking for him and he looks forward to facing Otani, Vampiro and his rival Taiyo Kea in the future with the MLW title on the line. Kojima said he wants to be the most fighting champ. This worked well.
The new Kojimania package airs. They showed highlights of Kojima/Lynn from last week and then a good 4 minutes of clips from his first title defense from October in All Japan against Nagai. Matched looked like it was real stiff and awesome. Wish I could've seen more of it. MLW hyped and put over Kojima very well here.
Styles recaps the brewing Vampiro/Raven saga as Nirvana's Scentless Apprentice rips through the background. That song is a perfect match for this. Vampiro will wrestle Kojima on Underground in 2 weeks. Vampiro will also confront Raven at the MLW Orlando May 9 show. MLW has also enhanced its production with these recap packages.
MLW Global Tag-Team Crown tournament: C.W. Anderson/Simon Diamond over Los Maximos. The SAT (Maximos) were on tonight and C.W. and Simon helped to carry them to a succesful match. I wish it was longer as it worked.
Dusty Rhodes cuts a promo on Funk and Corino. Vintage Dream.
Awesome package on Fuego Guerrero (AMAZING RED) & Ikuto Hidaka.
Los Maximos are shown beaten down. But by who???? Figuring out who should be fun.
Joey Styles puts over Kojima as being a hard working champion who doesn't back down from challenges. Styles shoots on Triple H saying that he was not given the title by the TV show GM, isn't sleeping with the boss's daughter, etc. He wrestled for it. Ouch! I was amused.
Mike Awesome goes nuts while speaking about rekindling his rivalry with Masato Tanaka.
Styles gives us the lowdown that there will be a #1 contender bout in 2 weeks on MLW TV featuring Awesome vs. Jerry Lynn.
Corino over Rhodes and Funk after the other Extreme Horsemen (C.W. & Simon) ran-in and destroyed Dusty and helped Corino pin Funk. This was an ending that had me having feeling like it was 1986!
We then are treated to another Raven promo as he wonders outloud why Vampiro hasn't returned his calls and if Vampiro is playing mind games. Raven ends the promo on a dark and cynical note that was probably his best stuff for quite some time.
Results: Dr. Death Steve Williams and BJ Friedman b Mike Sanders and Yang, CW Anderson and Simon Diamond b Los Maximos (Joel and Jose), Steve Corino b Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk.
MLW's production and storylines continue to get better. I give the show B+. I am glad to see MLW is continually improving the show. I'll be back next week. No doubt!!!!!!!!!!!
Bill Piven
y2jakbar@usa.com
http://www.wrestlinginc.com
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